Monday brings the annual July 4th Nathan’s Famous hot-dog eating contest on Coney Island, a spectacle teased 365 days of the year with a giant billboard outside the chain’s beautifully grimy mothership. So let’s revisit the scene at the stand one day in the 1950s.

Brooklyn, Her Highness has graced you with Her presence once again: Empress Beyoncé showed up in Coney Island yesterday to shoot a music video with the notorious rake Terry Richardson. Lo, let the merriment begin!

Since 1983, the annual Mermaid Parade has attracted people of all ages, shapes, and sizes to parade around town dresses as like a mermaid to pay homage to Coney Island's Mardi Gras era (which ran from 1903 to 1954.) And when we say all ages, shapes, and sizes, we mean it. For proof, enjoy a collection of our favorite…